A Small Farm Making a Difference in the Dundas Valley.

This page contains news items, links to interesting sites, and anything else the market managers have wanted to share with you. They are listed in reverse chronological order, with the newest entries at the top.

The Weblog

This page contains news, event information, and other items added by myself, the intrepid farmer-in-process at Old 99. I send out a message every week, but most are set with a delete date about two weeks later. I archive some of the posts if they have content other than weekly availability of produce and meat.

You can send me questions too, which if they are of a general nature, I can post to this Old99 blog.

Old 99 FArm, week of Aug 20 2017

The list is getting longer and longer of vegetables, fruits and meats plus eggs available and grown here at O99. Yes we have enough peaches to offer this year: no chemical, tree ripened, Red Havens. $3/liter.

Now is the season to help me plan for raising meat animals: chicken beef and pork. I need to know baseline quantities before committing to raising the animals. Chickens: $5/bird min 5 birds, beef $100/quarter, pork $50/half. Please put on your order so we can discuss when you come over.

Watch The Incredible Journey of Oil on youtube here. It’s got some remarkable footage of the ways oil has become indispensable to the modern lifestyle and military. Which of course is about to change as we become resolute in protecting the human habitat from fossil fuelled carbon pollution.

Old 99 Farm, week of Aug 14, 2017

More choices this week: string beans (green, yellow, purple), peaches, beets, beet tops, zucchini, peppers. In addition to last week’s offerings: spinach, chard, kale, tomatoes, cilantro, parsley, dill, and all the meats, eggs. Yes eggs are now back in good supply; the new hens are settling in. Egg size starts out small so we don’t have Jumbo or Extra large just yet.

I invite you to sign up for roasting chickens as in the past: $5 deposit, minimum 5 birds. Price same as last year.
Also taking advance orders for beef quarters and pork halves.

Local Food Summit Aug 6 to 16

I posted a note on this last week, but here I"m saying I’m really impressed with the use of technology to get content to virtual attenders all over the world.

The Local Food Summit will be a truly revolutionary event for both yourself and the local food movement at large. It may be your first time attending a virtual summit, and that is great. You will soon see why thousands of people are tuning in to these events, saving on transportation and lodging, and experiencing invaluable insights.

The Local Food Summit is not just a line up of speakers, it is designed to take you through a JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY. Each day has a purpose, along with its speakers. Each day several interviews and/or presentations will go live for your watching for the entire day (and the next), and will be available for you to tune.

As a FREE Member you will have FREELIMITEDTIME access for the duration of the summit. We’ll let you know what speakers are appearing each day so that you don’t miss out! We’ll also be hosting a daily short introduction to our speakers, what they’ll be delving into, and how to get the best from each segment. Be sure to tune into those!

STill 4 days left, you get an email every day like this for day 6:

The first nationwide local food gathering, August 6 – 16

Through a combination of online interviews and presentations, plus live webinars, hear from and interact with more than 60 of the most significant on-the-ground leaders, activists, practitioners, authors and elders who are at the front lines of the local food movement—all for free. This will be an unprecedented historical event.

Join us in catalyzing a revolutionary acceleration and expansion of the local food movement’s impact, effectiveness, and scale!

Old 99 Farm, week of Aug 7 2017

Just a reminder the day before our market day here at O99.
All the same increasing choice of veggies as last week, and meats, eggs, some berries (blackberry, currants and aronia)

Cami and I took 2 yr old laying hens to the butcher on wed and now have 50 stewing hens in the freezer, avg weight about 2lb. Special this week, 10% off.

Fresh flock of laying hens will take a week or two to settle in and get up to full production.

Links to climate issue:
Why do we humans have such capacity for denial of reality? where it’s abrupt climate change, speeding, smoking, or just eating too much? Here’s a theory, less than 10 years old and what to do about it in our own situations. Dr Ajit Varki at UCal San Diego

And here is update on species extinction, (which matters to all of us because all of nature is an interconnected web of life). Extinction Event Gains Momentum

Healthy eating,
Ian and Cami

PS see the Local Food Summit, an on-line event from aug 6 to 16, free, 50 speakers, podcasts, good links to how local food production (that would be including your own backyard!) is very important.

Old 99 Farm, week of July 23 2017

As of July 23rd , we can offer the following crops: raspberries and currants, new harvest chard and kale, purple potatoes, cilantro, arugula, sorrel, New Zealand spinach, rhubarb, lovage, sweet cicely, chives, peppers and tomatoes.

My friend and climate guide, Albert Bates, writes in his recent blog post about having to take time out to recover from his ‘addiction to climate porn’. He goes into the wilds, visits far away places, does practical service somewhere. But his sources named are not what deserve the put-down of pornography, the names he lists: Joe Romm, Nick Breeze, Peter Sinclair, Paul Beckwith, James Hoggan, are the credible sources for best uptodate information not politicized. Real climate porn I would call such as the youtube series Climate and Extreme Weather News, which shows clips from camcorders, newslreels and graphics of the extreme weather in recent days. This clip is for July 20 to 24.

Old 99 farm, week of July 17 2017

As of July 17th , we can offer the following crops: raspberries, new harvest chard and kale, purple potatoes, black currants, sorrel, New Zealand spinach, rhubarb, lovage, sweet cicely, chives. Our tomatoes went on sale last week.

We sell upick by weight, but roughly it works out to 500gm per Litre. Upick is about half price of pre-pick.

Reminder: I sharpen your chef’s knives with proper equipment so you can really enjoy them.

Old 99 FArm, week of July 4 2017

We have raspberries, picked and u-pick this week, not the peak crop but abundant. Also green garlic, garlic scapes, some pod peas, new baby chard, new purple potatoes, and kale, NZ spinach, maybe some tomatoes.